The AWPtical Wizard: The Tale Of kennyS (Part 1)

Arguably the most naturally gifted Counter-Strike player the world has witnessed, Kenny Schrub was born in France and started playing CS Source as a 6-year-old when his elder brother used to be away from the PC. His divine talents immediately stood out and he started rising in the French scene, winning tournament after tournament at a very young age whilst playing with players sometimes twice his age. And lo and behold, his quickness to grow within the professional scene closely mirrored his inhuman speed with the mighty AWP. 

Early Career

Playing most of the tournaments online at the early stages of his career, he was unsurprisingly hit by insane amounts of cheating accusations. When he trialed with France’s best Source team, VeryGames, he proved that he was not a cheater at a LAN, but the pressure got to him in the later rounds. That would turn out to be an undesirable pattern he would hold on to for a significant part of his career. After being dropped after the LAN disaster, he found another team in which he would gain some much-needed experience. Within just 5 months, he was brought back into the VeryGames roster, following mK’s removal. 

A 16-year old kennyS would finally find his groove with to-be-legends like NBK, Ex6TenZ, RpK, and apEX, winning both Insomnia 45 and 46 in Source. But just when his career was about to bloom, one of the most difficult challenges (but not quite the most difficult) he’d ever face had come.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was scheduled to be released in 2012. The broken beta of CS:GO frustrated kennyS beyond measure, and as he stated, even his manager was better at it than him. 

But then he got on LAN where things changed drastically. kennyS revived his AWPing genius on VeryGames’ CS:GO roster and his team looked like a superpower, coming out hot from Source. But the one team that trumped them repeatedly was 1.6 megateam and the demon of all teams in the early CS:GO era: NiP. 

After multiple losses against NiP and failure to defeat them even once, an 18-year-old kennyS was dropped from the VG squad, something that would deeply affect him, as he stated. 

Soon, he joined LDLC, the team that was exhumed from the grave of a previous Source roster kennyS played in. He reunited with players like Happy and apEX, but his time there was rather short-lived. The only highlight of his 3-month stint on the team would be him finally defeating NiP, though in a relatively quiet and unimportant context. 

After a disappointing loss to Epsilon, kennyS and apEX were released from the squad. 

The inexperienced prodigy found a few other teams, before settling in with Recursive Gaming for a few months, and playing in the first-ever CS:GO Major with them. But before that Major, apEX contacted him in need of a team. Kenny did not find the idea of changing a roster so close to a Major attractive, and hence he declined. But instead, kennyS offered to rebuild a team in LDLC after the Major, to which apEX and a few others happily obliged. 

But then a deep backstab right into his CS:GO wounds would change his perceptions towards others, especially apEX. A new LDLC megateam was formed, but kennyS was left behind. The emotional French was left to burn in the fury, as he criticized apEX and the rest of the squad. “I’m only half surprised about that news because I know the players from the team. apEX after two tries finally reaches his goals, the most hypocritical and opportunistic player in the scene has what he wanted: a salary.”

Mid-Career Woes

kennyS moved from team to team, all low-tiers, until finally finding a home in Titan, as shox’ replacement. Titan had exited in group stages prior to shox’ move and despite an addition like kennyS, they quit the group stage again at ESL One: Cologne 2014. After that disaster, the team witnessed a French shuffle. SmithZz and NBK- moved to LDLC while Maniac, KQLY and… apEX (!) joined kennyS on Titan. 

This move would end up being the ultimate disaster, one that would shock the CS:GO world and set back and cost the stars of that team precious years. kennyS was still rather young and had a career in front of him but his fellow teammate, ScreaM, wasn’t so lucky. LDLC on the other hand went on to win the Major, leaving apEX behind in Titan on their way to the top.

Rpk came out of retirement and joined Titan and they tried to put the past behind them, but to no avail, as they would go on to crash out even harder in the first Major of the following year. 2015 had begun badly for kennyS but it was only downhill from here. Why? The most personal attack on kennyS had brewed up from the depths of the game developers’ offices.

By late March 2015, the AWP had been massively nerfed, which was practically a direct nerf to kennyS’ unbearably aggressive playstyle. 

With his prime coming soon and such major demons in a weak team and a massive nerf arriving fast to get kennyS, no one could predict if he’d be another ScreaM or if he’d rise above it when the world pinned him down like never before.

Read on in Part 2 to find out what happened with the prodigious AWPer next!

 

(Header image Copyright ESL | Helena Kristiansson)